Invalid request error occurred.Earlier this week I was in Singapore for a few days and made it a point to have enough time on the day I was leaving to see how good Singapore’s Changi Airport is for planespotting. Changi is perennially listed among the best airports for travelers and I can certainly understand why (more on that in a later post), however for planespotting it does have its challenges. One of them is the green tint in the glass similar to what you would find in your car’s glass. This green tint is there to help reduce glare into the terminal and to also help the efficiency of the air-conditioning system. So any photo taken within the terminals is almost always going to have a green tint that you need to remove when you process your photos (which is not always easy!).

Also a challenge is the fact that each gate has security screening so the gates are cordoned off from the rest of the terminal so you do not have the ability to be up against the glass in most places unless you’ve cleared security for a gate, and you only do that if you have a boarding pass for the flight departing that gate!

Another challenge is that there is no dedicated spotting area within the airport grounds as you would find in airports such as Hong Kong, Munich or Frankfurt. There are some spotting opportunities from parking lots near a few beaches but nothing on the property itself. Changi does have observation areas within its terminals, however you are several yards away from the glass, and in many cases have 2 panes of glass between you and the aircraft, so pictures come out poorly!!

All that aside, Changi is still a very good place to observe airline traffic and I definitely recommend you bring your camera and take some time watching the airplanes! Many major airlines and Asian low cost carriers serve Changi so there is always something interesting to see.

The pictures below were taken over several hours on September 5 from within terminal 3 and from the aircraft that took me home. Of course it happened to be a cloudy day, and that impacted the pictures even more 🙁 .

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Being that Changi is home to Singapore Airlines, you get to see a lot of SQ equipment!

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Air Asia's 100th Aircraft Tribute Livery

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Air India Departure

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British Airways' Boeing 747-400

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Berjaya Air

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Cathay Pacific's Boeing 777

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Bhutan's Drukair

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Malayasia's Firefly

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Singapore's A380 being turned around from gate

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Garuda Indonesia's Retro Livery

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Garuda's current livery

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Thai's Boeing 777

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Sri Lankan's A320

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Jet Airways' Boeing 737-800

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Transmile Cargo

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Tiger Airways departure

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Garuda Indonesia's departure

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Lion Airlines Boeing 737-900ER

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Qantas' Airbus A330

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Silk Air - A Singapore Airlines Subsidiary

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Arrival of a Singapore Boeing 777

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Malayasia's Boeing 737

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Singapore A380 push back from gate

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Singapore Airlines Airbus A340

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Air France Boeing 777 Arrival

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Air Asia Airbus A320

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Singapore Boeing 777 would take off right behind my flight

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One of Changi's Tarmacs

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Jetstar A320

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Tiger Airways taxis to runway

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Singapore Boeing 777 being towed to gate

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Mandala Airlines arrival (notice same tail as Tiger Airways? they're partners)

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Singapore Airbus A330 taxis to gate after arrival